A Chinese study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry links advanced paternal age with the risk of schizophrenia in children. “After taking into account polygenic parental risk scores, each additional decade of fathers’ lives increased the risk of early-onset schizophrenia [1] in children by about 30%,” explained Shi-Heng Wang, the lead author. The explanation for this is apparently “an accumulation of genetic mutations” with age. In contrast, the study concluded that the mother’s age is not associated with the same risk.
For further reading:
- The father’s age affects the mother’s and child’s health
- 59 years old, the age limit for becoming a father via MAR
- The father’s age affects children’s health
- Surely requests from elderly couples for medically assisted reproduction should be discouraged?
[1] Appearing before the age of 18
Pourquoi docteur,Mathilde Debry (27/03/2019)
